Sometimes noodles are just noodles. But thankfully, some noodles rise to the level of the drunken noodles from US Thai Café. There must be some kind of black magic that goes into getting the sauce just right, because I've had a lot of drunken noodles and none of them made me drunk with love like these.
I first wandered into US Thai Café a few weeks ago, and though I have a long list of other restaurants I'd like to try for the first time, it wasn't two weeks later that I found myself making another trip to the small, unadorned space at 5228 West 25th Avenue, on Edgewater's old main street.
Both times, the food arrived at our table fast, and the noodles were steaming from the wok and slickly coated with oil and a light sauce. The tofu portion was generous and crispy -- just how I like it -- but I think it was the fresh tomatoes, sprouts, snap peas and fresh basil that pushed the dish over the edge.
My only complaint: The portions were smaller than I'm used to at many Asian spots around town, so our usual plan of sharing an entrée and app didn't work out. We both devoured the noodles in no time flat. Or maybe these noodles are so far superior to others I've tried, we both wanted more than was good for us. The tofu vegetarian pad Thai is equally solid, though I've noticed that you have to specify no fish sauce with several of their dishes to avoid any surprises.
A quick word of caution: unless you really love spicy food, you might want to stick to ordering items with a mild amount of heat, since their version of mild seems to vary from almost no spice to definitely somewhere in the medium to hot range. The servers are always happy to provide more chile if you want to spice up the food, but there's no point in sweating over your noodles -- unless, of course, that's your thing.
